Wiki Coder Productivity

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I CODE FOR RADIOLOGY GROUP AND I AM EXPECTED TO CODE AT LEAST 150 PROCEDURES A DAY. I ALSO ANSWER PHONES AND VERIFY ELIGIBILITY. I ALSO OBTAIN REFERRING DOCTOR INFO AND MAKE SURE AUTH MATCHES PROCEDURES. I THINK 400 CLAIMS PER DAY WOULD BE OUTRAGEOUSLY STRESSFUL!:eek:
 
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I too agree we need to make sure that we are comparing apples to apples. I code for critical care/trauma surgeons, there is no way in the world I could reach some of the numbers mentioned. We have minor procedures such as bronchs, feeding tubes etc. on the same day as emergency surgeries and the original E&M/Critical Care visit. The modifiers alone can drive you crazy.

If you are coding the same 10 or 15 procedures over and over with the same 20 or 30 covered dx yes I can see 400 a day, but otherwise I just don't see it. (Just to put it in perspective I have been coding almost 8 years)
 
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VA Outpatient Coding

We are required to code at least 60-65 event counts per week and our audits are internal as well as external by CBI. We must maintain 95% or better by outside as well as internal audits. :eek:
 
I don't think you're going to find an industry "standard". Every case is unique. I work in pediatric hospital and code for the physician side...ENT, Plastics, Urology, General Surgery, Orthopaedics, Interventional Radiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, E&M....just about everything.

I can code 20-25 ENT cases in an hour if they're straight forward ear tubes or T&A's. On the other hand, it may take an hour to do one cardiothoracic, neurosurgery or orthopaedic case depending on the complexity. I code directly from the operative report.

Nancy, CPC, CPC-H
 
productivity

I work for a radiology billing company and they normally expect at least 500-600 CPTs daily and accuracy of 95%.. We are audited every 3 months.
 
I agree Nancy and ShawnScarbrough!! :) - We are all working specialty, and case specific... If I'm in office - I can get a whole day done for all Orthos easy - 200 or more...
If I'm coding the ambulatory surgeries - definately less - but I'm so familiar with their procedures - doesn't take me too long anymore. Then I have the trauma cases from the hospital... 1 case could take what feels like forever!!
Have a great day everyone!
 
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I am a Revenue Cycle auditor and my team thinks reviewing 80 claims a month is too much! After hearing all your productivity numbers, I'm wondering what we are doing with all of our time! To be fair, we also have to audit the 1500 as well as the coding information and then enter all that data into a database with a 95% accuracy rate. :eek:
 
Coder's Productivity For Dermatology

Could someone give me some feed back on (Dermatology only) biller's productivity doing data entry into an EPIC billing system. I was told that the
doctors do their own coding. I'm starting a new job as a billing & collection operations manager the first of August that has 11 Derm physicians. I came from a teaching physician hospital where they were hung up on dollars and cents just how much money was generated in a day and RVU's.
Your help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
D. Bryant, M.A.,CPC
 
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caya

presently i code for the emergency department, physician side. we are required to code any where from 13 to 15 charts an hour and our accuracy percentage must not fall below 95. where exactly administration came up with these figures from i really do not know. i do know that we have a compliance department at this hospital and basically all of our policies, procedures, guidelines come from them. hope i could help you some how.
 
lisa king cpc

charonate said:
When I used to code radiology it was required to code 400 notes in a 8 hr/day with a 95% accuracy.

Now I'm working for urology/auditor its required to code 150 notes in a 8hr/day with 90% accuracy.
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what was the criteria on the mistakes ?. Can you tell me what the check points are on the quality. What is the mistakes on a 95% quality review. I work at a Radiology billing service and missing 1 out of 10 mistakes is a 90% quality review. Do they mark you off on diagnosis,cpt,modifiers and auditing.
 
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E & M Coding for Internal Medicine and Family Practice

I was a bit confused with all the different productivity standards members posted. Of course standards would vary depending upon how each coder came up with their CPT's and ICD-9's. Our coders abstract from the providers clinic notes. We have just switched to EMR and some providers are using templates and some are dictating and some are doing a little of both. I think 12-20 completed encounter forms per hour is reasonable for E & M codes.
Some of the standards that were mentioned made me wonder if some of the coders were simply just using the codes the providers wrote down and not actually abstracting the encounter's themselves.

Donna Louden CPC
 
Radiology production...

Hi All,

I am from INDIA, I used to code around 500-600 radiology charts per day. When I mean charts it includes the cpt/cpt's, Dx/Dx's, Modifier/Modifier's. And add to this I would be auditing the files done by my team members.It is Hard But I love my job and I do it pretty easily.

Regards,
Jayaprathap, CPC::rolleyes:
 
I am the manager of the coding unit at a multi-specialty clinic. We code hospital/ASC claims for over 200 providers - surgery, readings, E/M. Currently, I have 3 certified supervisors, 7 certified coders, and 10 noncertified coders. The coders are expected to put out at least 425 claims a month within an 8 hour, 5 day work week. This may seem low; however, we (not the physicians) are coding from documentation.
 
surgical coding productivity

lhamilton said:
Does anyone have any productivity standards for e/m and surgical coding in the ortho office? Thanks in advance! lauren
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Hi

I work in a boston hospital and we have productivity of at least 30 cases a day for orthopedic surgeries.

Hope that helps!
 
We are required to code 150 charts a day (EMR) and then enter all charges into the billing system. Most companies that hire you to work from home require 200 - 225 a day (8 hours), with a 90% accuracy rate, and they check it monthly ..... I think that 200 is a little over the top, we are coding the physician side of ER, but that is what we have set for now.
 
I code 150 ER visits per day (eight hour shift)

I was coding 175 cases of Surgical Pathology per day. For cytopathology 300 charts can be coded per day.

For E/M office visits, our target is 250-300 per day.
 
dabroussard said:
I am the Site Manager and have 7 certified coders and 2 certified auditors. We code for 125 physicians. The specialties run from Family Practice, Pediatrics, General Surgery, Cardiology, OB, Gyn, Internal Medicine, Urology, Plastic Surgery, Neurology, Nephrology, Mental health. Gastroenterology, Orthopedics, Podiatry, Chiropractics, PT, OT,Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Endocrinology, Rheumatology and Oncology
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How I can get home coding , Anybody can suggest me about it?
I have experience of 2 year coding in radiology for physicians
 
I code same day surgies for all specialities. I am the only ambulatory surgery coder for an army medical center which performs between 350-500 procedures a month and I am required to code 20 a day with 98% accuracy. I code straight from the report along with printing and diagnosing from pathology reports. After obtaining cpt, diagnosis codes, modifiers and anesthesia I also do the data entry. I only have 15 days from the DOS to code and enter or my work is considered out of compliance and that is including weekend days and holidays.
 
Calculations for productivity....

Okay I have read through this thread but I would like to know...How is all this computed to get the numbers by the hour to know you have made productivity. So like at our facilty (Hospital) big facility so we have 4 outpatient coders who code for the clinics and its all icd-9 coding and you have to do 15 charts an hour with 95%. Now instead of waiting for my manger to send the result at the end of the month. How can I compute my time to know that I hit productivity for the month?
 
Productivity

The company I work for has us code 300 a day coding is for ED and E&M physician side. what do you think about that productivity???
Would like some feed back.
 
Peripheral Seminars

I'm Looking For A Really Good Peripheral Coding Seminar. Does Anyone Have Any Suggestions?
 
Production

We have a billing department with 3 full time coders, 1 full time "Quality Coding Analyst" that does not code. Actually we don't know what this person does. We code for the professional services for Womens Care, OBGyn residents, Hospitalist, Pediatric Faculty for a State University, Pediatric, Surgical, Orthopedic (maybe 10 surgeries per month) and Family Medicine Residency Program (mostly E/M). There is also a Family Medicine Clinic with staff physicians and the residents, they see roughly 100 patients per day. There is one FAmily Medicaine coder with the responsibility of coding the ICD-9 codes on the physician provided diagnosis, and adding 25 modifiers when needed. These tickets are always behind.
We not only have NO quotas, we have NO production requirements, we have NO accuracy requirements. There are NO/NONE/NOTTA expectations of these positions. Yeah! for us. In fact a PRN coder was added to pick up the slack :)eek: ) The PRN coder is on Maternity leave and we have another PRN coder covering. None of the coding positions code from progress notes or reports. All the physicians select the level of service and link all the dx codes.

:eek: Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, I grow tired of this and being bored. I stretch out 20 hours of work into 40. The other coders do the same. The manager is not a coder, she has no clue. Audits, whatever, in three years no one has audited my work, corporate office did perform an audit and pulled 3 charts for 3 of the 8 physicians I code for. Yes, that was the audit. No internal or external true audits. Just the 3 dates of service per year. Which will now end because we no longer have a Federal Corporate Integrity Agreement to do so.
Life is good. We are a "don't ask, don't tell" business office. In fact these facts were brought to the attention of the managers-manager, no thing done. We will all continue to stay on personal phone calls all day, balance our check books, surf the web and get paid for coding for 40 hours. What a gig.

Consider yourselves lucky that you are in a position that you can have pride in your work, you have goals and deadlines to meet. A feeling of achievement and expectations. Some of the expectations are extreme and sound crazy, but they do put a "value" on what you do for a living.
 
Hi. I was very happy to see this question posted because I actually posted a very similar question just last week and received no answers. I code for a Radiology group and there are two of us coding and we typically code 600-800 in a 8hr day ( CPT and ICD-9). The reason I was interested in what other offices required was because our manager is looking for us to increase our quota. I personally don't see how we can and be accurate.
Thanks for the insight.
Heidi - CPC
 
All of the input here for this topic has been great. But I am a bit mystified by what some of you are actually giving productivity amounts for. Someone mentioned outpatient and I wasn't sure if they meant E/M or surgical procedures done in the outpatient setting.

Does anybody out there code NeuroSurgery E/M? If so, how many per day or per hour are you required to code? And what percentage of accuracy do you have to maintain? When I code E/M, I am coding the service level and category of service as well as the ICD-9 codes that apply. (and any necessary modifiers)

I do agree with what Ruth said on 6/6/08, that it depends on work flow, available resources and environment - as well as what the specialty is - in order to fairly determine a production standard.

I appreciate any feedback!
 
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Coders Productivity

I am a supervisor for a physicians group. Our productivity for Radiology Coding is 350 documented exams in a 71/2 hr work day, depending on if it is straight diagnostic or if some more specialty exams are within the batch (ie, Interventional, CT's, MRI's or biopsies.)

For our Multi specialty coders being that we code from Neuro., Gen., Vascular, Urology and many sub-specialty surgeries and E/M we tend to ask our coders that they be within a 3-5 day date of surgery work lag week (ie, Date of service 03/03/2009 should be coded and billed within that same week or beginning of the following week 03/04/2009-03/10/2009).

When we do the hiring process I tend to give actual charts/OR documentation with all patient Information blacked out per HPPA regulations. They have 20 charts/procedures to code within 90 mins, we would like at least 15 done and accurate. It has been very successful in our placement of coders because it tend to let us know exactly where we could use the coder in strenghths verses weaknessess. It also let us know if a candidate is teachable when it come to the process of coding for our physicians.

I hope this is a bit helpful as every facility has it's own way of cranking out the work, I like to think that accurate work is better than a bunch of non accurate work being processed because it will only make for double work in the end.
 
Calculating Productivity

I have created an excel sheet for my coders called Lag Report Sheets. What we use this sheet for is to kind of get where our productivity numbers should and could be. We have each coder to keep track of what they code each day and how many of each specialties they code in that batch no matter what specialty surgery or E/M.

We then take those numbers collectively to see how much and what each coder has coded and depending on the coder from the highest to lowest number we come up with a median and use that as our production log and as the experience increases then the coders get the hang of their specialty; therefore the numbers increase and then we insure the accuracy does not decrease, with weekly training and yes I account for the training time spent in those lag sheets we account for everything the coder may have to do in that day to get our numbers as close and fairly as possible because after all we expect it to increase so we have to start off with the right median giving room for improvement.

Someone also asked if we code neurosurgery and yes we do, it would depend on the surgeon and how many E/M he does in a day. We have 4 neuro surgeons and 3 coders for them. I have coded 93 E/M visits in a 2 hour time span before, but that was focusing on nothing but the E/M coding and not stopping to do any other coding and these reports can be very lengthy when coding E/M and diagnosis, as we code everything. We have others to enter the charges though.
 
MLARSON61 said:
I perform Second Level Review for a bill review company . For E/M bills the average production rate is 12-20 per hour depending on the length of report and the specialty, it averages out to 3-5 minutes per bill. For procedures with modifier 59 codes it can range 1 -3 minutes. This includes documenting the rationale for the coding analysis result. ...
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alexander said:
I have a question regarding the coding productivity. As far as the response from the EM coders, are you actually reading the chart, abstracting the information and determining the level or are you entering the EM codes the doctors select? I do EM coding (outpatient new and established, office consults, ER) and it really surprises me that a coder in a 7- 7 1/2 hour day coding that many EM's with 95% accuracy. Just curious to know. Same with some of the other cases that some of the coders speak of, are they actually reading the charts, abstracting the information, derterming the ICD-9 code and CPT codes themselves, or inputing codes that a provider selected. I am not trying to insult anyone, but I am really curious.
Thanks to anyone who can give me some insight to their coding day and their Productivity
Thanks:)
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I agree. 3 - 5 minutes per bill seems like a miniscule amount of time to read and abstract a note, look up the correct ICD9 and CPT codes, create feedback and deliver it to the provider, review the provider response, delete incorrect entries and then enter the correct codes, and file your records--in addition to the other work one must do beyond this, such as general emails, phone calls, education and training, file organizing, meetings, ordering charts, printing workfile lists, updating notes on the status of pending feedback responses, traveling to get charts, deliver written feedbacks, etc.

3 - 5 minutes sounds more like charge entry than the coding and feedback process. My E/M notes tend to be 2 - 4 pages long, which means that just reading the note within 3 minutes requires reading about 500 words per minute. So to have time to also abstract, do feedback and data entry would require more like 1000 or more words per minute reading time to give you some time to process the note. To fully comprehend the note at this speed would put you well beyond world record levels. So we need more details to understand what you're actually doing at this speed.

------

"The average American adult reads prose text at 250 to 300 words per minute."
"While proofreading materials, people are able to read at 200 wpm on paper, and 180 wpm on a monitor."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute#cite_note-3
 
production standards for fee tickets

What kind of productivity standards are there for fee tickets? The tickets arrive to the coders desk, marked level of service and the diagnosis written out. The only responsibility that the coder has it to add dx codes to the hand written note by the physician. Occsionally add a modifier. These coders do not, I repeat do not use the medical records, they simply work the stack of fee tickets (charge sheets). There are occasional interuptions from staff members through out the day, some tickets are returned for additional information from the providers. The fee tickets only have four to six diagnosis codes. This is family practice coding.

How many fee tickets should one coder be able to code in a 10 hour day?
40 hour week? Per hour?
 
Coding productivity

I code from the operative report for 4 different specialties; trauma, neurosurgery, plastics and cardiothoracic. I've done Orthopaedics in the past. From start to finish in our process, we are responsible for printing from the schedule to see what was done in the OR the day before, printing any op notes that are ready, abstracting the codes (CPT and ICD-9) from the note, making coding suggestions to the surgeons via email, waiting for their response and disputing if necessary, preparing for charge entry (getting appropriate locations (IP/OP), making sure the op notes is signed before billing, and then doing the actual charge entery. Balancing the batch, and finally filing. In addition, we work our own edits created from what we entered, as well as resolve some coding issues and disputes that our insurance department reps need help with, to get them paid. This involves a bit of research for each request. Educating the providers when necessary.
Presently, we are expected to do 20 a day, or 100 per week.
Lisa May, CPC
 
Family Medicine E/M

What type of volume would a coder be expected to work per hour when only writing in the dx codes on Family Medicine Fee tickets.

The coder reads the written diagnosis, adds the ICD-9 code and sends the fee ticket on its way to a posting clerk.

No charts to look at.
The tickets are returned to the provider if they are complete
No posting of charges
 
Coding Productivity

I am looking for coder productivity for ER coding. We would be required to audit / level the E/M and code all diagnoses. How many per 8 hour day would you anticipate an experienced coder should be able to do with 95% accuracy? Thank you!
 
Hello, I code now for OB and Gyn I code about 60 charts a day this is for an 8hour day sometimes even more, however when I worked for a surgion I was coding 4 times that amount. Hope this helps
kunzecpc said:
Greetings!

I'm doing some research for my job about coder productivity standards. I haven't found any specifics on the internet, so I'm guessing each employer sets their own standards for productivity. I'm asking you as my peers to give a little feedback.

My questions are: Will you please respond with the productvity standard (number of encounters that you are required to code - either by the hour, or 8 hour workday) for your clinic or facility? Also, what percentage of coding accuracy are you required to maintain?

Thanks in advance!
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I currently manage the ED coding for seven hospital ED's in Oregon. We do both the facility and the Physician coding for all ED patients. Here are our productivity and quality standards:


PRODUCTION AND QUALITY STANDARDS FOR ED CODERS

Definitions for Coders:
Experienced Coders = Coders who have been coding ED accounts for greater than three (3) years:

Intermediate Coders = Coders who have been coding ED accounts for greater than two (2) years, but less than three (3) years.

Beginning Coders = Coders who have been coding ED accounts for less than two (2) years

Trainee Coders = Coders who are currently being trained by a preceptor and are not yet coding on their own.

PRODUCTION STANDARDS:

Experienced Coder:
Meets = Average 7.0 to 8.9 charts per hour
Exceeds = Average 9.0 or more charts per hour
Needs Improvement = Less than 7.0 charts per hour

Intermediate Coder:
Meets = Average 6.0 to 7.5 Charts per hour
Exceeds = Average 7.5 or more charts per hour
Needs Improvement = less than 6.0 charts per hour

Beginning Coder:
Meets = Average 5.0 to 6.5 charts per hour
Exceeds = Average 6.5 or more charts per hour
Needs Improvement = Average less than 5.0 charts per hour.
Training Coder:
No set amount of chart

QUALITY STANDARDS:

Experienced Coder:
Meets = Codes and abstracts with an average of higher than 95% accuracy rate
Exceeds = Consistently 97% or higher accuracy
Needs Improvement = consistently less than 95%

Intermediate Coder:
Meets = Codes and abstracts with a consistent accuracy rate of 90% or higher
Exceeds = Codes and abstracts with a consistent accuracy rate of 92% or higher
Needs Improvement = Codes and abstracts with a consistent accuracy rate of less than 90%

Beginning Coder:
Meets = Codes and abstracts with an average of 85% or higher accuracy
Exceeds = Codes and abstracts with an average consistently higher than 87%
Needs Improvement = Codes and abstracts with an averages consistently less than 85%

Trainee Coder:
Must have average 80% or higher accuracy during first year








QUALITY STANDARDS FOR ED CODING

Quality will be measured by a five (5) point per chart system.

One (1) point each for the following chart elements
:
ProFee level Code
Facility level Code
All other CPT Codes (including observation, procedures, etc.)
ICD.9 Codes
Chart Abstracting (Correct disposition, physician, etc.)
 
eyrish8 said:
I have just finished CPT ICD-9 and am looking for a job right now. I take the certification exam june 14th. I love coding but oh man my stomach is turning reading all your stories. Does it come easy when you get hired. Do they train you on the software? I only know how to code from just going to the book. Will it be hard finding a job being I am a beginner? I have sent resumes out and have not heard from anyone!!!

would you give me your experiences when you were first hird
Thanks
kel
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I'm in the same scenario, except that I have to retake the exam since I didn't pass it last October. I would like to know if this is expected of a certified coder without experience.
 
ShawnScarbrough said:
Hello,
First you need to make sure you are comparing apples to apples. All standards need to be based on your particular situation.

If your coders have to flip through pages and pages of hand written notes you should not expect them to be as efficient as one that has a very sharp templated electronic note system.

You need to take into account the types of procedures they are having to code. A complicated cardiothoracic case is definately going to take longer than a tonsillectomy. Coders that code the same thing day after day should be more productive than perhaps a Trauma coder.

Another factor that can play a role in coding ED can be the facility coding. My coders code both the physician and the hospital services, so their productivity looks low compared to ED coders that only code the professional side if you are comparing charts per hour.

You really need to determine what levels of coding you have occurring in your establishment. Look at your best coders and consider them above the standard and then rank all of your coders by length of time coding and experience. Then I would try to sort through either giving a weight to CPT codes or using an overall charts per hour scale.

Hang in there!
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Thanks for providing a detailed explanation. As someone with no experience, your comments are beneficial to me.
 
RUTH N EGIPCIACO said:
Productivity standards are based upon specialty and Company requirements. You need to take in consideration the fact of work flow, enviroment and tools-material provided to coders and auditors to performed their assigments.

(eg- if the coder-auditor is performing straight coding without the need of searching for information missing on the record, it would take less time than coders that have to request and search for information).

Coding for XRays, EKG's, PFT and similiar coding is more straight forward than coding for surgeries and family practice. The used of "cheat sheets" are very helpfull. As you could see the lady who coded 400 reports for radiology went down to 150 reports for urology coding. That is because you need to read more and make sure the coding is supported by documented information including lab and path reports.

Our coding team productivity is 150-200 per day, for Family Practice and Specialties, and 400+ for Radiology Coding with a 95% accuracy.

Ruth Egipciaco, CPC, PCS
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Thanks for your input.
 
pdelorenzo said:
I agree Nancy and ShawnScarbrough!! :) - We are all working specialty, and case specific... If I'm in office - I can get a whole day done for all Orthos easy - 200 or more...
If I'm coding the ambulatory surgeries - definately less - but I'm so familiar with their procedures - doesn't take me too long anymore. Then I have the trauma cases from the hospital... 1 case could take what feels like forever!!
Have a great day everyone!
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I feel like this with my homework. It takes me a long time with one operating report.
 
coding

I code for a company that we code for all specialties. We have to do 125 a day and that is not counting the ones that we have to call about and get corrected. We have to keep log on the ones that we call about and have to call every 3 days till we get a response. This is in a 8 hour day.
 
rodriguj said:
I currently manage the ED coding for seven hospital ED's in Oregon. We do both the facility and the Physician coding for all ED patients. Here are our productivity and quality standards:


PRODUCTION AND QUALITY STANDARDS FOR ED CODERS

Definitions for Coders:
Experienced Coders = Coders who have been coding ED accounts for greater than three (3) years:

Intermediate Coders = Coders who have been coding ED accounts for greater than two (2) years, but less than three (3) years.

Beginning Coders = Coders who have been coding ED accounts for less than two (2) years

Trainee Coders = Coders who are currently being trained by a preceptor and are not yet coding on their own.

PRODUCTION STANDARDS:

Experienced Coder:
Meets = Average 7.0 to 8.9 charts per hour
Exceeds = Average 9.0 or more charts per hour
Needs Improvement = Less than 7.0 charts per hour

Intermediate Coder:
Meets = Average 6.0 to 7.5 Charts per hour
Exceeds = Average 7.5 or more charts per hour
Needs Improvement = less than 6.0 charts per hour

Beginning Coder:
Meets = Average 5.0 to 6.5 charts per hour
Exceeds = Average 6.5 or more charts per hour
Needs Improvement = Average less than 5.0 charts per hour.
Training Coder:
No set amount of chart

QUALITY STANDARDS:

Experienced Coder:
Meets = Codes and abstracts with an average of higher than 95% accuracy rate
Exceeds = Consistently 97% or higher accuracy
Needs Improvement = consistently less than 95%

Intermediate Coder:
Meets = Codes and abstracts with a consistent accuracy rate of 90% or higher
Exceeds = Codes and abstracts with a consistent accuracy rate of 92% or higher
Needs Improvement = Codes and abstracts with a consistent accuracy rate of less than 90%

Beginning Coder:
Meets = Codes and abstracts with an average of 85% or higher accuracy
Exceeds = Codes and abstracts with an average consistently higher than 87%
Needs Improvement = Codes and abstracts with an averages consistently less than 85%

Trainee Coder:
Must have average 80% or higher accuracy during first year








QUALITY STANDARDS FOR ED CODING

Quality will be measured by a five (5) point per chart system.

One (1) point each for the following chart elements
:
ProFee level Code
Facility level Code
All other CPT Codes (including observation, procedures, etc.)
ICD.9 Codes
Chart Abstracting (Correct disposition, physician, etc.)
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Thanks for breaking this down. I guess as a trainee we need to pace ourselves when it comes to coding from operating reports.
 
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smeeks31, I just finished school in May and passed the certification exam in June. I have been looking for coding jobs and they all want 2-3 yrs expereince. How did you get your job? How scary was it trying to meet the coding numbers and accuracy rates? I honestly am nervous reading this, but mostly still very excited and so wanting to be able to start coding somewhere.
Karla Nitchmann CPC-A
Biloxi, MS
 
Than you Sonjagirl for reprinting the information from Rodriguj. It explains a lot about the coder and how you grow. I clearly am a trainee. How does a trainee find a job?
 
Karlaarts said:
Than you Sonjagirl for reprinting the information from Rodriguj. It explains a lot about the coder and how you grow. I clearly am a trainee. How does a trainee find a job?
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You're welcome.

Since you are certified, register with Project X-tern. Search the Internet or newspaper and send your resume to ads--even if you don't have any working experience. Then follow through with a phone call to each one by explaining that you are certified and that you're trying to get your "foot in the door" since you don't have coding experience. They may put you in a different position as a file clerk, biller, or administrative assistant, or they may let you in as a coder trainee just to see how you work out.

If anyone give you a break, start coding operating reports related to this particularly specialty. This worked out with my former coworker, but I don't know how she's doing now though.

Did you find the CPC coding exam overwhelming?
 
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I was forced to encrypt 3-5 page e/m, radiology dictations, etc... in twenty seconds or less at a 98 percent error rate. Then at one employer they required two hundred fifty charts a day at a 97 percent error rate.

My instructor is teaching me a type of inpatient coding that requires a coder to code 12'' thick inpatient chart at three charts per day at 96 percent error rate..... it is like the more education you get the slower you are allowed to code.... :cool:
 
i work in a aute car hospital doing all surgeries. we are required to do 4.5 per hour... that in cludes reaing op notes , path reports, and history and physical.we do all modifiers and code for medical neccessity....ekg,labs etc...
 
I work for a 236 bed facility and code both inpatient and outpatient short procedures along with observations. Our standards are 14-15 IP per 8 hr day and 36 short procedure/observation per 8 hr day. Our facility is now looking into a computer aided coding system by 3M to help with productivity. Our office recently has lost a few of their more experienced coders and the productivity has been slipping on IP. When we get this program, we are going to be expected to code 24 IP charts per day.

I have been at this facility for just over a year and am CPC certified. I find no problem meeting and exceeding the SP/Observation standards (can code about 50-60 per day) but we do see alot of edits for lack of medical necessity that drive me crazy. Correcting those eat up alot of time.

As for the IP, I have only been coding since Oct 08. Currently I am coding about 8-9 charts per day. However, it depends on the chart. A more lengthy stay requires more time. I have been able to meet the 14-15 if the chart is a short stay, mother, baby or psych chart. Documentation has alot to do with it. We also have the CDMP (clinical documentation management program) at our hospital. I still find that I have alot of queries and this slows down my productivity. At our facility, you are expected to meet the IP goal regardless of the time and amount of queries you have to send out.

If anyone has any information they would like to share on the 3M computer aided coding I would love to hear the stories.

Kelly
 
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